Thursday, July 30, 2009

Catholic School Teachers Programmed to "Bear Witness" to Holocaustolatry

"Advanced" Holocaustolatry:

In Israel, Catholic School Teachers Study Anti-Semitism & the Holocaust

New York, NY, July 30, 2009 … Catholic school teachers from around the country traveled to Israel to learn about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust as part of the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) nationally acclaimed Bearing Witness Advanced program.

Bearing Witness Advanced provides educators with an opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of Israel against the backdrop of Jewish history, the Holocaust and Catholic-Jewish relations.

"Combining experts' knowledge of the Holocaust with the words of those who experienced it can have a unique and powerful impact," said Dr. Ed S. Alster, ADL's Director of Education. "The teachers learned firsthand how anti-Semitism can lead to tragedy if left unchecked. The experience should enable them to convey these lessons to their students more effectively."

At Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, the teachers heard from Holocaust survivors, historians and pedagogical experts. They also visited Christian and Jewish holy sites, and met with interfaith experts. To lend a contemporary sense of Israel, the group traveled around the country, and met with authors, journalists and political analysts.

The 19 participants in the 2009 Bearing Witness Advanced seminar hailed from Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. All are graduates of regional ADL Bearing Witness programs.

Since its inception, Bearing Witness has trained more than 1,000 Catholic school educators across the country. In 1998 it became an ADL nationally sponsored program and ADL regional offices began replicating the initiative in 2002. Bearing Witness is endorsed by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

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Anonymous
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FROM THE JEWISH NEWS (UK) – 16 JULY

REINSTATERS SACKED

Holocaust educators this week welcomed a move by the Pope to sack two officials responsible for the rehabilitation this year of Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson. He also abolished the group responsible for the rehabilitation. Pope Benedict last week placed the ‘Ecclesia Dei’ commission – the group responsible for recommending rehabilitation of a cleric who has denied the use of Nazi gas chambers – under the control of the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, effectively making redundant the commission’s head, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos. Monsignor Camille Perl, Cardinal Castrillon’s deputy has also been let go. “Precisely because the problems that now have to be examined with the Society of Pius X are essentially doctrinal in nature” the Pope said, “I have decided …in keeping with what I intended to do – to reconsider the structure of the Commission Ecclesia Dei, joining it closely to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.” Karen Pollack, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, applauded the move, saying: “ HET welcomes the actions taken by the Pope to remove the two Vatican officials responsible for the rehabilitation of Bishop Williamson, and we are pleased that the grave dangers of Holocaust denial have been recognized and steps taken to ensure that this mistake can never be repeated.” Shortly before the lifting of the excommunication of Williamson and three other ultra-orthodox bishops last January, the British-born cleric claimed in an interview with a Swedish television programme that about 200,000 or 300,000 Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, and none was gassed. Williamson later apologized for hurting the Pope, but did not recant his views. Benedict responded to criticism from both Jews and non-Jews around the globe by acknowledging that the Vatican had erred, stating in a March letter to Catholic clergy that he had not known about Williamson’s position prior to his reinstating. Last Wednesday, the Holy See added that until theological differences had been resolved with the far-right group Society of St Pius X, the sect to which Williamson belongs and which broke away from the Vatican in the 1960s over the liberalizing of reforms, the society has “ no canonical status in the church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry”. Pope Benedict also said in his statement that the changes will help “repair of all fractures and divisions within the Church” and “will make it clear that the problems now to be addressed are essentially doctrinal in nature and concern primarily the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar magisterium of the popes”.

Catholic schools should not teach holocaust studies. Holocaust studies are already promoted in every other aspect of society. Catholic schools should teach their own history just as Jewish Day Schools do. You don't see Jewish Day schools putting up Christmas trees and displaying crosses to promote Christian tolerance but they will aim to promote their agenda in Catholic schools. Jewish leaders want the opportunity to rob Catholics of their Cross, their culture and their history through holocaust infiltration and promotion of their own agenda to destroy from within. Holocaust studies should be reserved for Jewish institutions.